Pamela Morgan and Irina Kim can't contain it. The enthusiasm they feel about being onstage in Opera Mariposa's Suor Angelica is emanating from them as they sit and chat about the upcoming performance.
The two Burnaby sopranos are making their opera stage debut in the production, which opens Oct. 17 at Marpole United Church in Vancouver.
Opera Mariposa is a Vancouver-based company that's dedicated to providing a stage for emerging artists.
Morgan and Kim can both wear that badge, although they come from opposite sides of the spectrum.
Kim is a Capilano University student in classical music, where she studies with Heather Pawsey. She also studies voice privately with Vancouver-based soprano Raphael Wagner.
Morgan, meanwhile, has come into the world of opera in mid-life. She, too, studies voice privately with Wagner, and, for the past several years, has been performing primarily on her own, staging her own opera highlights concerts.
Wagner encouraged both students to audition to Suor Angelica - and both were chosen.
"It's my first time ever singing in an opera. I'm in the deep end, but I'm swimming," Morgan says with a laugh. "What a learning curve for me."
Morgan points out that opera, unlike other forms of vocal performance, also requires you to bring acting skills to the table.
"There's a character you must create," she points out.
She laughs that she found herself originally out of place in a cast full of twentysomethings.
"You don't see any other grey hair in the room," she says, but she adds it was not an issue. "Sometimes a little maturity is a benefit."
Kim says it's inspiring to be part of the Opera Mariposa ensemble, noting that most of the singers around her have extensive experience and the cast is packed full of talent.
"Our two Suor Angelicas are so amazing," she says.
The title role is shared by sopranos Jacqueline Ko and Sarah Templeton.
Two other experienced Burnaby sopranos are also part of the cast: Megan Bryden as the Abbess and Mistress of the Novices, and Julia Fox as the Second Touriére (alms sister).
Bryden's resumé includes performances with the Opera Project, Vancouver Island Opera, Opera Vivace, North Shore Light Opera Society and Dragon Diva Operatic Theatre, among others, as well as work as a concert soloist.
Fox is a piano teacher who began her operatic career with the Young People's Opera Society of B.C., where she played title roles in Hansel and Gretel and Pandora's Box. She is a former member of the Burnaby Central Secondary Chamber Choir, currently sings with the Vancouver Peace Choir and has also been onstage with Burnaby Lyric Opera, as well as acting for TV and film. She continues to study voice with Tony Caruso.
The singers welcome the chance to be part of director Sergio Augusto Flores' reimagined version of Puccini's one-act, one-hour opera.
Flores has moved the action to the Second World War, and the convent is occupied by soldiers - a change for the all-female opera.
"Nobody else has ever put men on the stage," Morgan notes. "They're always there, and they're getting in the way of what we need to do."
Flores has also changed a dramatic moment in the plot - which, in typical operatic fashion, is full of family tragedy and melodrama that includes an illegitimate son, an unforgiving elderly aunt and a death (or two, or three).
No spoilers here, but suffice it to say that audiences can expect to see the title sister appear more as victor than victim.
"It changes the whole mood," Fox says. "It changes Suor Angelica from being a victim into having a foot in the outcome of her story."
Be prepared, however: there will be tears.
Kim has broken down in tears just watching a video of the performance on YouTube. And Morgan promises that Suor Angelica's famed aria Senza Mamma (Without Mom) will wrench the heart.
But they also promise that, in the end, the audience will find itself uplifted.
The final music is usually interpreted as peaceful and reflective, Fox says - but not this time.
"We do it in a more majestic, bright, enlightened way," Fox says.
"It's a big, glorious ending," Kim agrees.
And while there's glory in the fictional world onstage, there's personal triumph at work too - Morgan has always dreamed of being onstage in an opera.
"It's a dream come true," she says with a smile. "It's a milestone in my life. My bucket list is getting shorter."
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Suor Angelica is onstage Oct. 17, 18, 24 and 25 at Marpole United Church 1296 West 67th Ave. in Vancouver. Tickets are $22 regular or $18 for seniors and students. Buy through operamariposa.com or call Brown Paper tickets at 1-800-838-3006.
